The $100 cheques, which were meant to offset the impact of the province’s new carbon tax, were only supposed to be sent to residents currently living in B.C., but Hansen said roughly 20,000 were mistakenly mailed out to former British Columbians now living in other parts of the country.

Okay, now, laugh at this part:

Letters have been sent to the affected recipients asking them to return the dividend, and Hansen said anyone who does not may have the money automatically deducted from their next tax return.

Done laughing now?

Look, people, its not that difficult. All postal codes in BC begin with a “V”. When you’re printing the cheques, simply tell the program to print only the addresses with postal codes that begin with a “V”. Its a relatively simple “IF” statement.

Sure, they’re taking the money back – great. But what about all the original costs of printing? According to this article, $10 million was initially set aside for printing and mailing 3.4 million cheques. Lets see: $10 million divided by $3.4 million is about $2.94 (rough figures) per cheque for printing and mailing. 20,000 multipled by $2.94 is $58,800.

Sure, not a hell of a lot of money in the provincial budget, but lets look at this:

How many rent or mortgage payments is that?
How many car payments is that?
How much greening can you do on your house for that?
How many bus passes is that?